bullyfanonfandomcom-20200214-history
User blog:TheToughGuy/My Review (Classic) - Grand Theft Auto series
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I decided to do a review of the series because I wanted to give you guys my thoughts on the games in the series. I finally got to play all the games thanks to a friend of mine. I'll give you guys what I think, but these reviews for the games will be relatively short in a way. ''Grand Theft Auto'' The first entry in the series. This game was nothing more than a top-down view, arcade game brought home onto consoles. There was no story at all to the game. There wasn't even a moral. You just played as a criminal, or criminals, and you did odd jobs across three different cities; Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas (which was based on San Francisco). You start off your missions from payphones and you do them to become the top criminal in the cities. Points are the currency in the game and they are earned by committing crimes and they are multiplied everytime you complete a mission. The music in the game is fun to listen. The only negative about the music would be that certain cars play certain stations, but that only gives you a reason to try out different vehicles. This game may be old and there may be no story, but it is addicting and fun. Points: '5/5 ''Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 This is the first expansion pack for Grand Theft Auto. It is basically like the original, only it is set in the real-life city of London in the year 1969. Same style as the original. Still fun and addicting. 'Points: '''5/5 ''Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 This is the second and final expansion pack for Grand Theft Auto. It's the same as the former two. Manchester has been added as a death match multiplayer. 'Points: '''5/5 ''Grand Theft Auto 2 This is the 1999 sequel to the successful game. This game put players in the shoes of a criminal named Claude Speed. The goal is the same in the game: be the top criminal in Anywhere City, which is the name of the unknown setting in the game. In order to be the top dog, you have to work with all the criminals in the city. In order to work for a certain gang, you have to kill members of the rival gang just to gain respect and access missions. Again, missions are accessed by payphones all around the city. There are also bonus missions across the city as well: Kill Frenzies, Wang Cars and Token collecting. For the first time in the series, saving has been included in this title. You have to access a "JESUS SAVES" church and pay $50,000 to save. The soundtrack for this game is also top-notch. My favorite stations are Head Radio and KGBH. My only complaint about this title is having to pay $50,000 to pay (if you don't have enough money, you'll be turned down). It's not good, especially if you have to turn off your system for some reason. 'Points: '''4/5 ''Grand Theft Auto 3 The 2001 sequel to the successful game. You are in the shoes of Claude (whether it might be the same guy from Grand Theft Auto 2 ''or a different guy). There are two goals in the game this time around: become the top criminal in Liberty City and get revenge on your crazed girlfriend who left you for dead after a bamk job. After escaping police custody while being transported to prison, Claude then goes around Liberty City doing odd jobs for different gangs around the city like the Italian Mafia or the Yakuza. This game is the first in the series to have a fleshed out story. The missions in the game are now given to you by your employer in person (through the use of cinematic cutscenes) rather than by payphone all the time, though there is still some missions given by payphones across the city. The soundtrack in this game is top-notch like it back in ''Grand Theft Auto 2. My favorite stations are Head Radio and Flashback FM, as it plays songs from the 1983 motion picture Scarface. Saving in the game has been modified better from GTA 2 ''as you now have safehouses and don't have to pay to save the game. New vehicles have been added in the series. Now there are boats, planes and helicopters. Boats will be used during the story missions. The plane (Dodo) has it's wings clipped off, so you can't fly across the city real well unless you knew how to fly it without crashing it. And the helicopter is not pilotable in the game, but is used by the police to pursue you and in one mission. The game is great, but my complaint is not having the absolute ability to fly and see Liberty City from a bird's eye view. Why add a plane and a helicopter and yet not have the ability to see Liberty from above? '''Points: '''4/5 ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City '' This is my favorite game in the series so far. The protagonist in this game is Tommy Vercetti, who was released from prison after serving 15 years. He works up his way up the criminal ladder and soon becomes the top coke king-pin in the city. The story is basically inspired by ''Scarface, where Tony Montana does the same exact thing. The story is still pretty good, in fact one of the best in the series. The game is a prequel to Grand Theft Auto 3, so it doesn't pick off where Grand Theft Auto 3 ''left off, not that games in this series usually do. The game is set in Vice City. The map is slightly bigger than Liberty City and there is alot more to do in this game than in the previous game. This time around, you can pilot helicpoters and a seaplane called the Skimmer and this time, you can get in the air to great heights. The soundtrack in this game has been made to fit the time era of the 1980s. All the bands of the 80's like Twisted Sister, A Flock Of Seagulls, Night Ranger and Anthrax have songs in this game. Apart from all of that stuff, what makes ''Vice City ''different from ''Grand Theft Auto 3 ''would be the additions. You can now make Tommy change outfits. There are alot more weapons to choose from apart from guns including a chainsaw and a katana. There are interiors that you can enter. Finally, there is real estate that you can buy. It is important if you want to move on up the story. There are no flaws that I can think of for this game because it's perfect. '''Points: '''5/5 ''Grand Theft Auto Advance '' This game is a Game Boy Advance exclusive and was originally going to be a port of ''Grand Theft Auto 3. You control the character Mike in this game. His best friend is killed and he does odd jobs across Liberty City to find out who the killer is, but soon finds the true out about his best friend. The story is pretty good. I'll give the game that. However, there are no helicopters or boats that you can drive. It's only cars. The game has the top-down view like GTA 1 ''and ''2 ''but no third-person perspective like ''GTA 3 ''(not a bad thing for all those old-time fans). No activities during free roam (expcet for vigilante and Paramedic). You don't even have the same option of changing clothes like you did back in ''GTA: Vice City. Finally, the soundtrack ain't much. It's all tones from GTA 2 ''and ''3. The Game Boy Advance wasn't the best system to put a GTA ''game on, but at least it's a ''GTA ''game. The story is great and the gameplay is good enough for you to cause mayhem in Liberty City. '''Points: '''3.7/5 ''Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas The next BIG installment in the GTA ''series. Enter the gangster world of the 1990s with Carl Johnson, a man who returns home to Los Santos after spending 5 years in Liberty City. He returns home to attend his mother's funneral and to help his older brother, Sweet, and his childhood friends, Ryder and Big Smoke, with the gang that he left so long ago. As soon as though he helps his crew out, he finds out stuff about his two friends and this one cop, Officer Tenpenny, involvment in killing his mother. After being forced to leave Los Santos, he is on a journey across the state of San Andreas just to get back on Ryder, Smoke and also Tenpenny. The story is the longest in the series by far and also one of the best. It'll take you several hours and days just to complete. The map of San Andreas is just so big, I couldn't find my way around which was a bad thing. I need to know how to find my and the waypoint didn't really do me much favors. There's three cities in total in the game: Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). There is alot to do in the game than ever before like burglary, gang wars and minigames like pool and games at the casinos. There is new weapons in the game like heat-seeking rockets and C4. There are more vehicles to drive now, including military jets, bicycles and trains (you can still ride them like in previous games). The wardrobe has been improved to where you can dress Carl anyway you like. There are new stealth elements and the fighting has been approved since being incorporated in another great game, ''Manhunt. The game is flat-out good and the soundtrack is also great. You got alot of great fans from the 1990s in this game from bands like Guns N' Rosses and Kiss. The gameplay is good, the story is awesome and the soundtrack makes you feel like you were in the 90s yourself. My complaint is that navigation wasn't easy and I wish it was. 'Points: '''4.9/5 ''The Introduction '' Comes with the Special Edition of ''San Andreas. It's a twenty-minute video that shows what happened before the start of the game. You see how Carl's mother is killed, how Ken Rosenburg from GTA: Vice City ''got his job at the mafia casino, what Tenpenny and Pulaski did, etc. It's a nice extra for the Special Edition if you ever bought it back in 2005. '''Points: '''5/5 ''Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories The next entry in the GTA ''series after ''San Andreas. Liberty City Stories ''puts you up with Toni Cipriani, a mobster who had to leave Liberty City for three years after killing a made man. The whole idea of the story is Toni getting back in favor with Don Salvatore Leone and to prevent the Sicilian Mafia from destroying the Leone Family. The story is pretty good and it is inspired by many mafia films. However, the gameplay is not as great. The outfits concept from ''Vice City ''returns instead of the wardrobe from ''San Andreas. You don't have the ability to swim like back in San Andreas ''and you can't get any flyable vehicles. Well, I couldn't. I didn't know if I was looking in the right place or not. Maybe flying wasn't suppose to happen in the game. All I got to say is there wasn't alot to do like back in ''San Andreas. It was a good game though. That's good to say. 'Points: '''4.4/5 ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories A prequel to one of the best selling games in the series. Vice City Stories ''takes place 2 years prior to ''Vice City ''and stars Victor Vance, Lance's older brother, as he struggles in the criminal underworld. He was first a soldier stationed at the Fort Baxter Airbase till he was kicked out of the military for possesion of drugs that he got for his Sergeant, Jerry Martinez. So that is when Vic goes around Vice City and builds a drug empire, similar to what Tommy Vercetti did in ''Vice City. The only difference between Vice City ''and ''Vice City Stories ''is the new empire building feature that is in this game. There are these side missions where you take property from enemy gangs and then that is when you start construction on your new business. You can choose from diferent illegal businesses like protection racket, loan sharks, drugs and smuggling. It's a great new feature to the ''Grand Theft Auto ''series and I wish it would have been past down to the later titles. As for gameplay, it's all the same from ''Vice City ''and it's still perfect. Perfect story, perfect gameplay and perfect soundtrack. It's as perfect as ''Vice City ''was before. '''Points: '''5/5 ''Grand Theft Auto IV Now this game was the technical heap that Rockstar could have ever made by far. This game featured Liberty City like never before in high-definition graphics and very identical to New York City. Also because of the high-definition graphics, the gameplay has been enhanced to act more realistic than ever before. It's very impressive to see how badly damaged a car can get because of explosions or dropping it from a high point. The gameplay is excellent and the activities are very good. There are numbers of activites to do with friends that you unlock during the progress of the story like pool, bowling and darts. Then there's the jobs that you can do for some of your friends from your cellphone that you can do to get extra money if you're in need of some. There's just lots to do in Liberty City and that's a good thing since Liberty City (including Alderney City, which is a separate city from Liberty) is almost the size of San Andreas was back in GTA: San Andreas. Now about the story. The game puts you with Niko Bellic, an illegal immigrant who showed up at Liberty City on a boat from Eastern Europe. He comes to live with his cousin Roman, who talks about living it big. But Niko soons finds out that Roman is in debt with different groups and Niko soons helps him. Helping out his cousin with his debt soon gets him involved with the Russian Mafia and later on the run from them and their leader, Dimitri Rascalov. Later in the story, it turns out that Niko is in America looking for some old friends of his and question about a tragic event that happened a decade ago. The story is pretty good and players would love Niko Bellic for his good side, even though he's still a gun-wielding sociopath. Also different about the story for this game is branching storyline. There will be choices that players will make that will alter the story one way or the other. There are also Random Characters that appear in the city and provide players with small, minor missions. They're scattered across Liberty City and they're not part of the main storyline if you're only in the game for the story. Finally, the soundtrack is also great. There are lots of good songs on the different stations. Songs from bands like Greenskeepers, The Prairie Cartel, The Sisters Of Mercy, Queen and Black Sabbath. All good. Everything is pretty good. This is a great game, but my only complaint is no planes (but at least helicopters, but only two types). It must be because of 9/11. And no parachutes. I'd at least want to know that I can safely get to the ground and not get myself killed. But those are minor. This game is still awesome to play. 'Points: '''4.7/5 ''Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost And Damned This would be the first DLC to GTA IV. This DLC doesn't however follow Niko Bellic, but instead puts you in the boots of Johnny Klebitz, the biker that you encountered quite a couple times during GTA IV. Both Niko and Johnny's story run together during the same time period. While Niko's story was about living the American Dream, Johnny's story was basically biker-themed. He's the Vice President of The Lost Motorcycle Club in Alderney City and the actual President, Billy Grey, is released from rehab. So the beginning of the story revolves around Johnny's questioning of Billy's leadership of the gang as they both have opinions on how the gang should be run. Then after a horrible event happens to Billy, it's basically up to Johnny to keep his brothers in arms alive as he goes around Alderney and Liberty City, doing odd jobs for different characters across the cities, even some Niko helped out in GTA IV. As I said before, the events in this DLC intervenes with GTA IV. Some of the events that you heard happen on the radio in GTA IV ''that Niko never did at all will be explored in this great title. Now for activities, there are some new ones and some have been taken away. Like for example, air hockey has been added and bowling has been taken out. Apart from that, gameplay is still the same exepct for weapons. New weapons appear in this game like an automatic pistol and shotgun....and they are fucking awesome. Then there are some side missions added into this DLC. Bike Racing and Gang Wars are located across the cities and you get rewards for completing a certain number of them. Then finally, the soundtrack. The music is completely different. Of course, I have only played the version that came with ''Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition, so it also shares the soundtrack with The Ballad Of Gay Tony. Still, it's pretty good. Bands like AC/DC, Kreeps and Motley Crue have some songs on here. So, here you go. Good biker-themed story, same gameplay, new weapons and good soundtrack. My only complaint is that the DLC only lasts 22 missions long if you prefer to just do the story, but hey it's a DLC. It's not suppose to last a long time like GTA IV did. 'Points: '''4.7/5 ''Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad Of Gay Tony The last, but not the least DLC for GTA IV. If you ask me, this is the best out of all three titles in the set. Best story, same gameplay, awesome activities and so forth. In this title, you play as Luis Lopez, a dominican-american who runs one of the best nightclubs in Liberty City alongside Tony Prince, aka Gay Tony. The story is basically about the struggles that they face at the top. They are in debt with many different people, including the Ancelotti crime family, and they have to work their debt off, but they seem to get themselves into more trouble. The story only lasts around 26 missions. That's not enough missions for this DLC. I think Rockstar should have put like maybe around 30-35 missions just to make the story longer. The story is still beast however compared to the other two titles. And it also runs alongside the story of the other two. You'll actually find out what happens to the diamonds that Niko and Johnny tried to get in the other titles. Now the gameplay in The Ballad Of Gay Tony ''is the same as before, but there are new activities. There's parachuting in this title and yes, that means the parachute from ''GTA: San Andreas ''returns in this title. There are also Triatlon Races, Club Management, Cage fighting, dancing and Drug Wars where Luis has to help out two of his childhood friends make an empire for themselves. All pretty good. There are new weapons and vehicles in this title. You get a shotgun with explosive rounds (which is flat-out awesome), a gold uzi, a gold car called the Super Drop Diamonds and a attack chopper called the Buzzard which gets painted gold later on. These are great new toys for you to mess around with and it's about time you got them. Now as I have only played the DLC from the ''Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition ''set, the soundtrack in this title is the same as it was in ''The Lost And Damned, which was pretty good as I said before. If you haven't played this title before, I think you should as it is pretty fun. 'Points: '''4.9/5 ''Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars This game once was a Nintendo DS exclusive before being brought down to the PSP. I only played the PSP version, but it's still the same game. You play as Huang Lee, the son of a Traid who was killed recently. Huang's mission is to deliver an ancient sword (that's been in his family since his father won it in a card game) to his uncle Kenny so he can have leadership of the gang once the current leader, Hsin Jaoming, steps down. But things don't go as plan. The sword gets stolen and Huang is left for dead. So he then has to go do odd jobs for different people all across Liberty City like Hsin Jaoming and his son Chan, Zhou Ming (both Chan and Zhou are competing for leadership as well), an undercover cop who trying to land a bust before he is caught and convicted of corruption and a reportor recording the drug scene (exclusive to the PSP). The game is set in Liberty City, the same one from Grand Theft Auto IV ''and it's DLCs, only it's been modified for the DS like no over-lapping highways or hills or even Alderney City. It's all flat execpt for the buildings, which we need to make it a city. The city has a few changes but apart from that, it's still the same from before really. Now the gameplay for this title has a few modifications. First off, you can't escape the cops by outrunning them like back in ''GTA IV. You have to ram their vehicles off the road into solid objects and total them. Number of stars you got, the number of cars you have to total in order to lower your wanted level by one star. Or you could always go to a Pay'n'Spray which thankfully still exist. For activities and mini-games in this game, you got the same stuff from previous games like Taxi Driver and Vigilante, plus the Liberty City Gun Club and Drug Dealing. Drug Dealing is interactive and fun. You can make good money from selling drugs like weed and downers. You can take drugs from vehicles from the rival gangs or buy them from other dealers across the city. However, prices are high from security cameras across the city. Destroy them all and prices go down. Also considered mini-games are interactive scenes where you have to do a specific task like pouring gasoline into a bottle to make molotov cocktails or hot-wiring a car to get it started without sounding the alarm. They're pretty interactive and fun. Now for the soundtrack, it's alright. It's not bad, but it's not really good like ''GTA IV ''or it's DLCs. Alot of these stations are named after bands like Anvil, The Prairie Cartel and DeadMau5. The songs are good, but they don't have lyrics. I can get that the story cutscenes don't have dialogue and appeal to the audience like a comic book, but I do noticed that civilans in the game have dialogue. So why couldn't the music have lyrics? That is probably my only complaint for this title and no helicopters. I guess no copters because of system limitations for the DS. Apart from those negative sides, this game is totally worth having for your handheld device. '''Points: '''4.4/5 '''My review for ''Grand Theft Auto V ''will be separate from this blog post. Check it out once I post it after playing it. ''GTA V ''won't come out till September 17, 2013. I'll let you guys know once I do post a review for it. By then, I'll try to do a better job of giving a review for it than how I did for these titles. I'll still probably do reviews for other games in the meantime. Category:Blog posts